These are some cool modes that you can use on the bass, or any instrument for that matter. Note that the top four notes of this scale are the same as the straight dominant scale the bit you have to work on is the bottom f our notes. Well now take a very brief look at how scales are used in jazz improvisation. That is how most guitar players in rock, blues and popular music approach improvisation.
This scale is built by adding a major 7th passing tone to a mixolydian scale, creating an 8note scale thats used to solo over dominant 7th chords. Scales and chords for the upright bass the following keys should be learned in the order presented. You know how to start on the 5 then go to 1 then to 3. Scales and chords for the upright bass desert bluegrass. When first starting to play a new lick, play it in slow motion, then gradually speed up. Jazz bass line construction thelonious monk institute of jazz.
C dorian, c melodic minor, c minor pentatonic, d minor pentatonic, f major pentatonic, g minor pentatonic, b b major pentatonic, c minor bebop, e b major bebop, d in sen. Here is a pdf of the 36 important scales major, dorian, and. Jan 21, 2019 then, you alter one note at a time to create every mode of melodic minor, harmonic minor, and harmonic major. When you learn a new scale, you will often have a fretboard diagram of the scale to. There is not a single group of scales that can be called jazz scales a jazz pianist uses lots of different scales. Its just that you want to get the most common modes under your fingers first. Concerning keys, f, bb, eb and ab are all common in jazz since they works well for brass instrument. All others pitch sequences such as whole tone, diminished and blues scales are called. To summarize, the most important scales to learn first are the major, dorian, and mixolydian scales because they help you navigate major 7th, minor 7th, and dominant b7 chords, respectively. Jazz guitar scales basic modal scales ionianmajor scale play over. Jazz is an experimental genre and guitarists are constantly exploring new scales and modifying old ones in their improvisation. Free pdf scales collection download over 150 pages.
They show the scales as played on a 4 string bass with standard tuning. The notes of the arpeggio are identical to the chord and contain the intervals 1, 3, 5 and 7. The typical jazz guitarist plays to the chord and not the key. The 2 5 1 chord progression is found at one or more places in nearly every jazz standard. Each scale is presented in order of most common, major, to least common, harmonic major. The symbol of the bass clef is derived from the old german way of writing f. Strings 432 of the a scale form the same fingering pattern as strings 321 of the d scale. Jazz is an experimental genre and guitarists are constantly exploring new scales and modifying old ones in their. Guitar scales and modes explained easy shapes, licks, and. The bass lines are good and one simple addition to know is that just about any chordwalking bass line, you can always use a leading tone that is, 12 step below to whatever is the next chord. The sound of a 7th chord is a little more complex than the sound of a triad, and its extensively. Craig fraedrichs free pdf download scale studies for improvisation is. Jazz path publishing blues scales for bass clef brian kane books available at music retailers nationwide, and internationally.
A book like exotic scales would have been a great timesaver in my own musical journey. These scales are important for all instruments to know. The function of a bass player in the jazz combo is to work with the piano player and drummer to provide both a harmonic and rhythmic stability for the tune. The modes of these scales are also used, so its important to know those. Major bebop scale ascending ascending from 1 to 1 b. The end result is solid understanding of what scales to use for grooves and soloing and for a bassist this understanding is crucial. Its main function is to add alterations to dominant 7 chords. For when you have to learn to play the bass right now. Most scales can be played in more than two positions, so that i would suggest to find all possible roots and play the same fingering showed, also play them in different keys. Bass guitar scales made easy learn guitar for free. Once a player can navigate a tunes harmony confidently, then rhythm can more easily come to the foreground. Major scales are to be performed as written below with the mm. The use of a halfstep wholestep diminished scale over the dominant chord is very common in bebop.
The jazz guitar chord dictionary this jazz guitar chord dictionary is a reference to help you. His series of etude and duet books have been endorsed by joe lovano, randy brecker, john fedchock and a number of other world renowned jazz artist and educators. Richie blake explains and shows the importance of the pentatonic scale download support pdf for this lesson. The 16 most important scales in jazz updated learn. D dorian means the second mode of the c major scale. Bass guitar chord charts poster includes the seven basic guitar chord fingers for the seven major chords, a, b, c, d, e, f, and g. More than any other ingredient, the jazz tradition is based on listening.
The beast pdf advanced bass scales exercise this bass scales exercise is the best way ive found to learn the notes on the neck, be able to move around fluidly from top to bottom in any scale, build up your playing endurance, and practice playing fast scale runs all at the same time. How to improvise jazz melodies bob keller harvey mudd. This isnt to say that you shouldnt study harmonic major modes. They are all different in their moods so you can decide which you like or want to use. Before attempting to improvise over a jazz standard, its a very good idea to identify which chord scales will work over the chords in the progression. Listening to jazz recordstapes should be part of every musicians daily routine. The progression is often used to introduce a key change.
Scale fragment with chord tones off the beat avoid avoid notes avoid note is the jazz players term for a note that is in a common scale for a chord, but which shouldnt be sustained say longer than an eighthnote over that chord because it is very dissonant, to the point of sounding harsh. Learn bass guitar scales and modes bass guitar scales represent structure and patterns in our music, and starting to learn those patterns makes it suddenly easier to recognize, understand and apply them. Ukulele scales are created from a family of notes that sound pleasing together. A jazz bassist must learn how to walk a line based on the chords of a tune. Major chords 1 ionian major scale 2 digital patterns. Basic and 7th chords, modes, and solo scales for bass guitar. Mar 11, 2015 recently i did a post about the 3 most important jazz scales for beginning improvisers. Bass guitar scales represent structure and patterns in our music, and starting to learn those patterns makes it suddenly easier to recognize, understand and apply them. Chords derived from c major scale shown with their functions as roman numerals related to traditional music.
The first jazz scale that youll explore is one of the most jazz sounding scales out there, the dominant bebop scale. It is the most extended scale in poprock jazz because of its versatility, because it always sounds good, always sounds like blues. Today i bumped into those jazz scales look for the jazz scales page on the left side which are modes of the melodic minor scale. As you follow the scales, you will always go up low to high then back down high to low. Jazz scales can seem like a million options that you all need to learn in all positions and all chords, but there is a way to approach this that is a little easier than trying to learn all jazz. These scales are essential for beginning jazz guitarists and enable you to play over almost any jazz standard. Major bebop scale new york jazz academy fastest growing. The seven main modes scales for the bass guitar dummies. With all these scales at your fingertips, you get more choices in terms of flavor, or color, when playing your bass guitar. Jun 22, 2011 scales are a tool that allow you to gain some essential technique and harmonic awareness, aiding you immensely as you learn the jazz language. This creates a great deal of tension which usually resolves when the dominant moves to the tonic chord. What makes each one of these scales different is that when they are played, they create moods that are less obvious than the happy sound that comes from a major scale or the sad mood that comes from a minor scale. This bass scales chart gives you the basic shapes and box patterns to start with to begin playing and learning scales and their degrees.
This jazz scales article and many others on this site will help you. They serve as the foundation to a tonality major or minor. Till now when i improvised on jazz starndards harmonics i used to play around on the regular scale modes ionian, dorian, prygian, etc. It doesnt matter whether you play guitar, piano, saxophone, trumpet, bass, or the kazoo.
Scales jazz pdf for information concerning the finest in jazz education write to summer jazz workshops, co. This lesson is by no means meant to be complete but gives you a good overview of the most important jazz guitar scales. In the previous lesson, we focused on arpeggios that spell out each chord. You can spend hours a day practicing scales by only running them up and down and you wont improve at playing scales, or jazz improvisation for that matter. Get started with a simple approach to mastering the diminished sound.
For each scale, there are 2 positions on the scale chart. Begin with the notes in a single octave of the scale, and once you are comfortable with that, go up two octaves. Similar to the minor pentatonic scale, the blues scale which just adds a tritone to the minor pentatonic scale is an important tool in any bass players toolbox. This lesson introduces a 2step process for identifying potential chord scales and then we apply the approach to the jazz standard blue in green. C melodic minor, c harmonic minor, e b major bebop. This week were looking at how you can inject some awesome juice into your bass fills, runs and solos by using an intervallic approach to shedding scales. Scales and chords for the upright bass 9 of 17 7122011 7. Scroll down to download a printable pdf version of the chart, with no login or signup required. The blues scale, perhaps the most used in modern music to play lines, whether melodies or riffs, allows us to approach the blues sound without having to play within a blues structure. The bass scales chart below shows three common bass scales pentatonic minor, blues and major as patterns on a fretboard.
The simplest is to play all the notes of the scale from bottom to top, and perhaps back down again. Just because you practice scales, chords, patterns, and exercises doesnt mean you will sound stiff and mechanical, or that you will become a jazz great. The following chart is a small collection of things you. Jazz scale applications the preceding scales are here roughly arranged from most consonant to most dissonant in relation to the following chord types. Before you begin to learn any language, you need to know the building blocks that are the basis for that lexicon for spoken languages, this is the alphabet. Home scales the major scale the melodic minor scale symetric scales pentatonic scales blues scales. Jazz bass extended arpeggios fundamental changes music. Recently i did a post about the 3 most important jazz scales for beginning improvisers. Major scale 1 4 3 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 a 4 4 4 4 4 1 4 3 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 4 4 4 4 major scale sae b b b c b 1 4 3 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 4 4 4 4 5 1 4 3 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 4 4 4 4 6. Scales and arpeggios by jp dias gustavo lopez segura. The suggested fingering for the scale is to the left of the diagram. How to play jazz guitar scales 10 scales every guitarist. Upsidedown scale studies for improvisation upsidedown scale. Bass scales chart a free printable bass guitar scales.
The 7 scales on the chart below are a good place to start. Major and minor bass guitar scales bass books and music. Using backing track one, begin by isolating the top two strings of the bass and play four notes from each arpeggio in each bar 14 notes. Always play with a metronome or other time keeping device. If you dont know diminished scales, you dont know bebop. On this page you can find full length video lessons which cover all of the essential theory. They are, in roughly descending order of importance, the major scale, the melodic minor scale, the diminished scale, and the whole tone scale. Learning your triads on bass will help you move beyond the root. You can find the notes for the triad by playing any scale up to the 5th note, skipping every other note.
The a scale is the d scale transposed from string 2 to string 3. But there are typical scales used in jazz and here is an overview. Strings are vertical while imaginary frets are shown horizontally. If you are new to jazz piano, check out the lessons on the major and minor scales. Jazz bass soloing fundamental changes music book publishing. This book is not intended as a compendium of every possible pattern or harmonic approach. However, how a jazz guitarist approaches playing over chord changes is quite different. Or you can think of it as starting with the same basic cooking recipe but adding different flavors different sounds to change it slightly. Jazz bass extended arpeggios are an essential part of jazz bass soloing. The blues scale consists of the root, a minor third, perfect fourth, a tritone, a perfect fifth, and a minor seventh six notes in total. Randy hunter is an atlantabased freelance saxophonist and long term private instructor. We are going to start with three main types of scales chords. He self publishes a series of educational jazz books entitled complete jazz styles.
However, standard music analysis calls the major scale a scale, while all sequence of pitches that can be derived from the scale, including the minor mode, are not called scales but modes. Practice the scale until you can play it continuously and fluently. Simple walking bass line for jazz beginners talkingbass. The 244 chord shapes on this page are essential knowledge for any jazz guitarist and will help you to comp chords with creativity, con. In jazz often the terms scale and mode are used interchangeably. The two dots on the right of the bass clef symbol surround the line on which f pitch is written. Bass tab for playing a 1octave scale with a tonic note of e in open position a movable bass pattern for playing the scale with any tonic note. Okay, now you have the notes memorized, have some scales down, and have practiced the scale degrees right. Pdf ebooks, and info about related paper books and apps. These consist of the three most important notes of any musical scale. Play up from the 1st green note in the diagram to the 2nd for a 1octave scale. To play and improvise jazz piano, you must have a good knowledge of jazz piano scales and jazz piano modes. Nov 24, 2015 the half whole diminished scale is one of the most commonly used scales in jazz soloing. Scales, chords, arpeggios, and more presented with theoretical definitions and related resources.
83 1065 961 674 1340 429 260 1578 1408 118 1641 165 471 898 67 536 674 689 155 446 1281 706 297 1212 1247 1388 771 535 1326